Irish Band Fans Punk-rock Fire

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April 2, 2002|By Sean Price, Orange County (Calif.) Register

Call it fighting Irish music. It's amazing it took the better part of a century after "the troubles" began in Ireland for Irish music to reflect all the anger and bitterness held within its soul. Yet it never lost its joy.

But when punk ideals crashed headlong into Irish musical artistry, the late, great Pogues were born. What is more amazing is that it took about a decade after the demise of that band for Flogging Molly to come along.

They're here now, however, and that's all that really matters. The Irish-American band, performing at the Social Thursday night in support of the group's latest, Drunken Lullabies, seems to be the strongest candidate yet to pick up where the Pogues left off.

Lead singer Dave King knows the Pogues' shadow is there. It's easier to accept now that the band seems poised to step out of it. But King's own recent experience with the legendary band has given him reason for comfort.

"I went back to Ireland this year, and the Pogues had gotten back together to do a tour," he says. "Tin whistle player Spider Stacy loves us, and he found out I was going to be in town, and e-mailed to tell me he got me tickets to the show. So I was hanging out backstage, and he was so aware what our band is about and where I'm coming from.

"There is no doubt the Pogues are an influence on me. And the Dubliners before that. The Clash, you name it. But Spider was aware that we were taking the torch somewhere else."

That was all King needed to know.

"You just build on that, I think. In a lot of ways I'm going back to my real roots. The comparisons, I don't care. I really don't. Whatever you want to call it. We're going to do what we want to do and that's it. And we're going to have a great time doing it."

The success of their first album, Swagger, was built largely off fiery live shows during the Warped Tour last year.

For most of the audience, it was the first time they had heard Irish music that wasn't U2. And it was fresh and invigorated with a punk-rock fire. The success of the second album will be built largely on those same audiences for this year's tour.

"The crowd on the Warped Tour were amazing. They were so open to the sound. A couple of years ago, we were playing Molly Malone's; now it's just a bigger bar without a roof on it. But we want to turn it into a big celebration of life. And after a show, we always like going down to a pub and playing songs. We love doing that.

"We know what we're doing when we go on stage, and I believe we're a great live band. That's all we have to prove and that's all we are."

And Flogging Molly captured the sound of a great live band becoming ever more cohesive and having more fun on Drunken Lullabies.

"When you're in a van with 10 people, you need to like each other. I might write the words or songs, but each of us brings their passion to it. We all understand where we're coming from."

King came from a typically large Irish family, where space was in short supply but the music was not.

"We had one room in the place and we had a piano. Where it came from I'll never know. Every Saturday and Sunday my mom played it. I almost want to get back to the essence of that. To me a lot of great Irish music was brought on because there was nothing else to do. You lived in Ireland, but it wasn't your country. It was run by somebody else. You weren't allowed to do this or that. All you had was music.

"I remember the first album I heard was The Dubliners Live at the Gate Theatre, which my father bought. I listened to that for years as a kid. Then I went to see a band called Horselips. It blew my head off. They had traditional and rock instruments. It really moved me, the power of it. So when I listen to the Dubliners, it conjures up images that pull my heart strings. It's a haunting sound. It sticks to your bones. No matter how many generations you are away from that, you recognize it."